ehh im hitting around the same give or take a few dollars. heh i miss the days when gm alternators were cheap as hell  now other than my truvck and my saturn ive no desire to drive small vehicles. basically rear drive and full size for me

Alternators are still cheap as hell if you go about it right...find a shop that'll rewind them.  I had two stock, blown 80 amp alts from my 86 RX-7 rewound and hopped up to 200 amps for $40 a piece.

Check the wire harness to the coil pack, a wire may be broken in it.  This is a common problem with the Focus, and it's a Buddha Loves You to find.   After that replace the coil pack. 

Do you have a scan tool?  Go borrow one from an Advanced Autoparts or something and pull those codes and post them up.

Hey, Mak:

Is the SVT worth a damn?  I think they are great looking cars (I'd rather have an R32, but for the coin?). 

The SVT's are awesome but don't expect much in the way of tuneabillity if you get one...they're pretty well maxed out.  An aquaintance of mine had one with a full exhaust, intake and a couple other little bolt on gidgets and only gained 3hp.

Outside of that they're light and super nimble and there's the all important 6-spd tranny.

I read an article from a tuner mag where they had put a supercharger on one and didn't even really notice it that much. 

So, yeah, I guess they are maxed out.

Well if they weren't running much boost then no, the difference would be subtle.  An SVT needs about 1bar before serious numbers start pouring out of her cylinders.

If you're considering boosting one, the 2.3 PZLEV is a better platform...but no 6spd...

Quote from: LimaXray on June 20, 2006, 07:08:07 AM
Check the wire harness to the coil pack, a wire may be broken in it.  This is a common problem with the Focus, and it's a Buddha Loves You to find.   After that replace the coil pack. 

Do you have a scan tool?  Go borrow one from an Advanced Autoparts or something and pull those codes and post them up.

Are you saying a wire coming to the coil pack, like from the computer, not a plug wire, would break?

I scanned it at the autoparts store and it came back with P302 and P303, misfire in cyl 2 & 3. 

I reset the computer after putting in the new plug wires.  Like I said, the plug wires helped a lot, but I can feel the occasional hesitation that was not there before.  So far the check engine light has not come back on either.  Something is obviously still wrong... I'll take a look at the coil pack when I get a chance.

Yeah the wireharness that goes to the ECU that plugs into the side of the coil pack. 

There should be 3 wires IIRC: ground, trigger coil A, and trigger coil B.

I'm sorry I totally missed that you said you scanned it already. 

The Focus (and most cars today) uses a wasted spark ignition system which means in that coil pack there are 2 ignition coils, each firing 2 non-sequential cylinders.  Just a misfire on 2 and 3 is odd; I believe the firing order is 1-4-2-3, so cylinders 2 and 3 are sequential and therefore not fired from the same coil.  If coils A and B fire cylinders 1 and 4 without a problem but not 2 and 3 and you checked/replaced your plugs and plug wires, then your ignition system is probably fine.  Check on that firing order though, I could be wrong, and check that wire harness regardless.

One possibility would be a blown head gasket.  This can cause a loss of compression on side-by-side cylinders which can in turn cause a misfire.  It may be worth your while to buy/borrow a compression tester and check it out.

From a few random internet sources it appears that the firing order is 1-3-4-2 so it could be the coil pack.

Yeah I thought I was wrong about that firing order.  In that case, cylinders 2 and 3 fire off the same coil so that coil probably isn't firing while the other on is.  I'd say your problem is either one of the trigger wires in the coil pack wire harness is broken or the coil pack is bad.

I will go $100 on a bad fuel pump. It is most common when you drop below 1/2 tank of gas. This is way more common of a problem with the Focus than any of the stuff that was already mentioned. Ford actually put out a "silent" recall on it. I think the coveage went up to 6 years or 100,000 miles. I would call your ford dealer and ask them to run the VIN # to check for a fuel pump recall. Other than the fuel pump issuses the Focus is a great little car. 

Quote from: Jason on June 20, 2006, 08:46:11 PM
I will go $100 on a bad fuel pump. It is most common when you drop below 1/2 tank of gas. This is way more common of a problem with the Focus than any of the stuff that was already mentioned. Ford actually put out a "silent" recall on it. I think the coveage went up to 6 years or 100,000 miles. I would call your ford dealer and ask them to run the VIN # to check for a fuel pump recall. Other than the fuel pump issuses the Focus is a great little car. 

Thought about that and I know about that recall, but that would cause a misfire in all 4 cylinders, and hes only getting it in 2... trust me, 1 coil isn't firing

I won't rule out that it could be a bad coil, but I have never seen a vehicle set the code for all cylinders missing. Like on the cougars that had the fuel pump issue it would miss like crazy, but only set two of the 6 cylinders codes. I have replaced plugged fuel filters on V-10's that would be missing like crazy and pull the codes and get a cyl 8 misfire. I would call and have the VIN checked, what the heck if it's free get it done.